Lost
by Lady Jarine
Summary: A boy with no memory of his past, two friends who aren't sure why they're there, and a race against time.
1. Blank

**Hi and welcome to my newest fic! I don't own anything related to Harry Potter, so na na you can't sue me! (not that I have anything in the first place) Enjoy!**

It was cold.

The streets were filled with cheerful shoppers, their minds on nothing but collecting their assorted purchases from the shops that lined the streets, their christmas lights just starting to light up the frosty twilight. Few, if any, had eyes to spare for the teenager hunched between a bookstore and a coffe shop. His clothes were strange, like a preist's robes or something of the sort, and he was staring out at the street, looking scared and confused. Nobody knew who he was, or where he came from, but everyone was too wrapped up in their own lives to care.

Those particular questions and more were what the teenager was pondering at that very moment. About an hour ago, he had found himself lying on the street, with nothing but the clothes on his back. No idea how he had gotten there, or even who he was. He had glanced at himself in a shop window, hoping that he would recognise himself, maybe remember something, but it had been like a stranger was looking back at him. A stranger with black hair, green eyes and glasses. Not very helpful in the long run.

He stood up, deciding that sitting around and thinking wasn't getting him anywhere. There must be a better way of doing this. He needed a plan. But first, he needed a coat or something to keep him warm. Although the day had been relatively warm for December, it was getting colder as night was falling. He had no idea how he was supposed to do that, he had searched his pockets and found no money, only a strange peice of wood. Like that was going to do him any good.

After a bit of searching, he found a small alley, that, for some reason, was warm. He knew he shouldn't be picky, and should just be grateful for finding anything at all, but he had an eerie feeling that nobody besides him could see the alley at all. But that was rediculous. He might not have known anything about himself, but the teen wasn't stupid. That was impossible. They could see it, they just didn't deem it worthy of attention. There, that was a more likely circumstance. But he just couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more to it...

Not that it really mattered, anyways. The alley was warm and he needed a place to spend the night. His stomach growled with hunger, but there was nothing he could do about that particular problem right at the moment. He could live with his hunger until the next day, at the very least. Now there was nothing to distract him from the thoughts twisting around in his head...

_ 'Who am I? What am I doing here? Why can't I answer myself?' _No answers came, and the boy sat, watching night fall around him, wondering why he could remember stupid things like maths and english but nothing about himself. Around midnight, judging from the jet black sky, he finally fell into a troubled sleep.

_A cold, high laugh seemed to close in on him from all sides. He couldn't see his surroundings, the laugher, or himself. Nothing existed but fear, all around him, closing in on him from every side. There was no up or down, right or left. Nothing but the fear._

_ From somewhere distant, all of a sudden, came a bright white light, that somehow cut out the sound of the laughter. It grew more annd more solid and came nearer to him. He reached out his hand, and was inches away from touching the bing of light when..._

The boy woke up, as suddenly as if someone had poured cold water over his head. Which wasn't far from the truth, as it had started snowing. Groaning, he stood up and brushed himself off. Now he would have to find a more sheltered spot. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the car speeding towards him on the road until hust in time. He leaped onto the sidewalk and landed face down in the grass to the side. Unfortunately, the only possesion that remained with him had not been so fortunate.

_ CRACK!_

With a feeling of growing dread, the boy stepped back onto the road, where the thin peice of wood had fallen out of his pocked as he jumped. It now lay in two peices in a tire track. He had no idea why he had even had it in the first place, and it hadn't seemed very important. It still didn't when he thought about it logically, but that was hard to do when his instincts were screaming. But he would have to ignore them. His instincts must be wrong. There was no way some stupid stick breaking would cause problems, right?

**Tada! Okay, yes I know it's short, but all of my chapters are, otherwise it would take me even longer to update :) Yes, it is possible. But I am going to try to update this more often than my other fics, because I've forgotten all of their story lines except for Random Story of Randomness, which never had one and never will.**

**Lady Jarine**


	2. Friends

The next day, the teenager leaned against the wall of the alley he had found. The two pieces of broken wood lay in front of him. He had been staring at them for hours, willing them to fit back together. He didn't know why, but a part of him felt as though his very life depended on fixing it. Which was stupid, of course, because it was just a piece of wood, which had some sort of feather in the middle. Not something that was life-threatening to break, even if it was a curiosity. 

If only he could remember something, anything about himself! Why was this stupid piece of broken wood so important to him in the first place?

He sighed and stood up, shoving the pieces of wood back into his pocket. There was no hope of fixing it, whatever it was. It had been all but shattered by the car's wheels. Stupid car. He walked out of the alley, blinking in the bright sunlight. Nothing was going to get solved by sitting in an alley mourning the loss of a stick.

The only way he could think of to go about trying to get his memory back was to try and find something that he could recognize. He started walking around, staring at everything (and getting some strange looks in return), but nothing seemed particularly familiar. Maybe he had been here before, well he must have, because this was where he had found himself, but nothing here held the same sense of familiarity as that stick in his pocket had. Maybe it had been his first trip to this town?

He sighed. Nothing here was jogging his memory in any way. He turned around, ready to head back to the alley, but something caught his attention. Well, two someones, to be exact. A boy and a girl, who both looked about his age. Most of the people he'd seen around here were either much older or much younger than him, but that wasn't what had caught his attention. Nor was the fact that the boy seemed to be confused by a cell phone that a woman standing near them was using. No, the thing that had made him pause was that these two people did seem familiar.

Not in the same way as the stick in his pocket, but the kind of familiarity that comes with good friend who have been through it all together. The boy started towards them. Even if he was wrong and he had never before seen them in his life, what more could go wrong in his life at the moment?

As he walked over, the girl turned to him, seeming puzzled. "Excuse me, not to be rude, but do I know you?" she asked. "You seem familiar, but I can't quite place you."

He grinned. "I think you may be asking the wrong guy. I just came over to ask you the same question."

Maybe it was because it seemed as though they'd known each other for years, or maybe it was just because they were all looking for answers that didn't seem to exist, but they kept talking for most of that day. The boy told them his story, which didn't take too long, as there was so much he himself didn't know. When he showed them the broken piece of wood, however, he hadn't been expecting a reaction quite like the one he got. "You're a wizard?" the boy, Ron, had exclaimed, examining the wand.

"I guess. Makes about as much sense as anything else that's happened so far," the teen shrugged. He shoved his hair back.

"Where did you get that scar?" the girl, Hermione, asked. "But of course, you wouldn't know. It's strange, though, it looks like a bolt of lightning."

The boy traced over it with his finger. "I dunno where I got it, but it was hurting last night. I remember, I was having this strange dream and it woke me up."

"Strange…"

Ron and Hermione had told the boy their story, as well.

"And then yesterday, we found ourselves here, with no idea why. I think we might have been looking for someone, possibly you even, because it seems that what happened to us is rather similar to your situation." Hermione finished.

"But I he lost his entire memory, and we only forgot why we were here. If you're so smart, how exactly is that similar?" Ron had interjected, rather rudely.

"Maybe you were looking for me and, I dunno, someone removed all the memories of me from everywhere?" The boy frowned. "But why would anyone bother doing that? Who could even do that in the first place?"

Nobody could answer. After a while, they went to find a hotel. Luckily, Hermione and Ron had some 'muggle' money, as they called it, with them, and they found a place to stay the night.

"You're going to need a name you know," Ron pointed out later that night. "It gets too confusing if you don't have one, plus people might get suspicious."

"I guess." The truth was, that had occurred to him too. He had been trying to figure out what he should call himself for a while. Unfortunately, nothing had come to mind.

"I have absolutely no idea."

"Well, we have to call you something," Hermione insisted. "We can't just go around calling you 'that guy', it will attract too much attention!" Ron and the boy had to admit she was right. Attention from the general public was the last thing they needed at the moment. With their story, they would immediatly be 'chucked in the looney bin', as Ron so eloquently put it. So, for the next few hours, they sat around, trying to come up with a name for the boy. After much debate and deliberation, it was finally decided that the boy's temporary name should be Jeremy Brenin, a name borrowed from Hermione's neighbor's dog.

Ron glanced at the boy, now Jeremy, appraisingly. "The dog name fits!" He daclared at last, earning him the rank of 'target' for all the pillows in the room, courtesy of Jeremy. Ron, of course retaliated. Hermione just rolled her eyes and pulled out a book, eventually putting a stop to the all-out war around midnight.

**Okay, there's chappie 2. I actually cringed while writing this, I'm awful at writing dialogue, but this chappie needed to be put in, as it's kinda important. I know they're all kinda out of character, so any suggestions at all, PLEASE review and tell me. I'm begging you!**

**Lady Jarine**


	3. Wands

**Hi everyone! Sorry it took so long to update, but I completely forgot my plotline. Yesterday I was talking to Little Lily Granger, and she gave me an idea, which made me keep thinking about the story, and then I realized that all of a sudden, I had a plotline! Woot! So this story is now dedicated to her, and yeah. Oh, and also, I've changed the last bit of chapter two slightly, so you should probably go reread that before you continue with this chapter. Anyways, on with the fic!**

The next day, Ron and Hermione took Jeremy out to get a wand. They were heading to a store called Periak Wands. According to Hermione, it was a family run business that was highly reputable in the Wizarding world, if not as well known as Olivanders.

They headed into a small suburb just west of their hotel. The winding roads were dotted with brightly coloured houses on both sides, all sporting large gardens and most had large trees in the front yard. There were children out playing, climbing the trees, running from house to house, and there were scattered noises of splashing and laughter that led one to beleive that more than one of these cheerful houses had a pool in the backyard.

After a while, they came across a large lapse in houses. There was a convenience store parking lot on one side of the street, and a large, dense hedge running along the other. The trio headed towards it. Ron glanced across the street. There was a group of young girls playing four square with a bright yellow ball. They appeared to be settled in to play for a few hours, and they really needed to get through the hedge without being seen, so he pulled out his wand and muttered something, pointing it at the ball, which promptly started bouncing down the street, much to the surprise of the girl who had been about to catch it. The girls scampered off down the street, following their ball, and Ron and Hermione hurried through the hedge, while Jeremy confusedly followed.

It was dark, pressing in from all sides. The smell and sounds of the hedge surrounded him. The prickly leaves were pushing against him uncomfortably, yet the hedge opened enough just ahead and behind him so that he could get through. Jeremy couldn't see Ron or Hermione in front of him, but he kept pressing onward. Just as he started to wonder how much farther the hedge went, he came through the other side. Ron and Hermione had clearly just come out ahead of him, and, miraculously, had no scratches or leaves in their hair. He glanced down at his own arms. Neither did he apparently. Hermione was lecturing Ron for using magic in front of muggles, while Ron insisted that nobody had seen, and that he had had to, so Jeremy had a bit of time to reflect on his predicament.

_Why am I not more surprised by this? _Jeremy wondered. He had forgotten everything about himself, yet nothing seemed strange or alien to him once it was mentioned, even all this talk about magic. In fact, the only thing that seemed to be completely unreal was, well,_ him_. He didn't have time to ponder this further, as the three of them walked into the store that was in front of them. Jeremy hadn't noticed it at first, coming out of the hedge. It looked rather odd, as it was a triangular shaped building. The large brass letters above the door read, "Periak Wands". Ron pushed open the oak door and they walked in.

Jeremy blinked. Memories or not, he was quite sure he had never been in a place like this before. The triangular building had dozens of shelves and boxes stacked in each of the three corners, tucked behind counters that cut across the verticies. In the far corner of the shop, there was a group of people with a sales lady in a dark blue robe. A young boy was waving around a wand with no result, but certainly not for lack of trying. As Jeremy watched, the wand flew out of the boy's hand across the room. The sales lady pulled out her own wand and it came zooming back. She caught it and put it into a box on one of the shelves, then gave the boy another wand to try with a patient smile.

There was a desk in the middle of the room, which they walked over to. Another lady in a blue robe sat there. She smiled at them as they approached. "Good morning!" She said cheerfully. "How can I help you?"

"Well, my wand died, so I was hoping to get a new one." Jeremy held out the broken peices as it to prove his story.

The lady grinned. "You came to the right place! We've got more wands that you'll ever need. I'm Katelyn Periak, by the way, I'll be helping you today."

"Jeremy Brenin." Jeremy shook her hand. "And these are my friends Ron and Hermione."

"Nice to meet you all," Katelyn said, shaking their hands as well. "Alright, ready to get started? At Periak Wands, we have a unique system for finding the perfect wand for anyone. We've got them sorted by the type of core, and we can guestimate the length by your height, therefore minimising the amount of wands you have to go through before you find the right one." She said this all very fast, as though it was something she had memorized, and was trying to get it all out before it jumped out of her head.

"Anyways, we start by figuring out what core you need." Katelyn held up a box with three different wands, all of which looked quite worn. "Basically, you just do a really simple spell, and whichever one works best is the core we'll look at." She held out the box for Jeremy, who hestated.; He glanced at Hermione, who was looking a bit worried. He didn't know any spells. Ron poked him in the back, then said, very quietly so that Katelyn wouldn't overhear, "Just say lumos."

Jeremy turned back and picked up a wand. Katelyn raised her eyebrows at the delay, but said nothing. _Here goes nothing. _"Lumos!" Nothing happened. He bit his lip and put the wand down.

"Don't worry about it, some cores _really _don't work for some people. We just won't give you a dragon heartstring wand. Okay, next!" Katelyn held out the seccond wand, and Jeremy took it.

"Lumos!" A small, dim light appeared at the end of the wand. Jeremy could hear Hermione's sigh of releif behind him. He grinned and put down the wand, grabbing the last one. "Lumos!" The end of the wand lit up so brightly that it momentarily blinded him. Then it died down, and Katelyn laughed, saying, "Okay, I think we have a winner. Phoenix feather it is!"

Still blinking away spots, Jeremy, Ron, and Hermione followed her to one of the corners. On the way, the little boy across the room lost his wand again, and it flew and hit Katelyn. She tossed it back over, yelling, "Hey Tory, try a permanent sticking charm!" The sales lady, Tory, rolled her eyes at Katelyn, and the yound boy stuck his tongue out at her, a sentiment that she quickly returned. Hermione had a dissaproving look on her face, while Ron and Jeremy grinned.

Once they got to the corner, Katelyn stepped behind the counter and started pulling out wands, seemingly at random. Jeremy tried wand after wand, and after about half an hour, they finally decided that the best fit was beech, 14 inches, with a phoenix feather core. They paid and left, as Tory finished with her customers and came over to Katelyn with a look that promised scolding.

"Well, now that we have your wand, we can start teaching you some of the things you'll need to know until we can get your memories back. Basic self defence, mainly," Hermione was saying.

"Yeah Hermione, but on the bright side, if he runs into anyone unfriendly, he can always just blind them and run off!" Ron laughed.

**End of chapter 3! Please review and let me know what you thought!**


	4. Learning

**I'm baaaaaaaaaack...**

After they got Jeremy's wand, Ron and Jeremy headed back to the hotel, while Hermione went out to try and find a magical library. She insisted that Jeremy should be taught the spells properly out of a book, to try and avoid accidental mis-teachings. Ron had, of course, dissagreed, but only by making faces at Hermione when her back was turned, causing Jeremy to fight back a grin. So, after making them promise that they wouldn't do any magic while she was gone, Hermione grabbed her wand and some money and headed out the door.

As soon as the door had swung shut, Ron turned to Jeremy. "So, what do you wanna learn first?"

Jeremy grinned. He had, after all, been expecting something like this. "But didn't Hermione say no magic while she was out?" He asked innocently.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, she's always saying stuff like that."

"And is she usually right?"

"Er... That has nothing to do with this dicussion!"

"Fair enough." The two boys pulled out their wands with an air of great importance and got started. Ten minutes later, they were both coughing and trying to wave away clouds of heavy purple smoke.

"I take it that's _not _what expelliarmus is supposed to do?" Jeremy choked.

"Nope. I actually have no idea what went wrong with that. You said it right and everything... I showed you the correct wand movement, right?" Ron glanced over at him.

"There's a correct wand movement?" Jeremy glanced over at Ron. "For future reference, I'm thinking we should listen to Hermione."

"Well, maybe. I'm just glad nothing happened. I mean, could you immagine how mad Hermione would be if we had vanished the door, or blown up the bed, or..."

"Hey Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"Did that couch use to be bright purple?"

Several hours later, Jeremy and Hermione had already made it about half-way through the very large book of defensive magic Hermione had brought, and Ron was sitting on one of the beds sulking. Hermione had confiscated his wand as soon as she had fixed the couch (which had taken all of ten secconds, wheras the boys had spent half an hour trying to fix it, with only some bright orange polkadots to show for it). The look on her face had been extremely intimidating, and Jeremy had made a mental note to never get Hermione mad. Well, not on purpose, anyways. At the moment, though, she was beaming at him.

"Really, Jeremy, I didn't think we'd even get through half of what we've covered so far by now!" Hermione was obviously ecstatic about having a student who could pick things up so quickly.

Jeremy shrugged. "Well, it's all been really familiar, almost like I already knew all this stuff, and I just needed reminding or something."

Ron snorted. "Yeah, almost." Jeremy shot a glance at Ron that was meant to be intimidating, but it only caused him to laugh harder. "You look like Hermione!" That caused Jeremy to burst out laughing, and Hermione, scoffing, to leave the room to go order a pizza, as it was obvious that they wouldn't be getting much more done by way of magic for a while.

"I think we should all go to the library tomorow."

Jeremy and Ron looked up from their pizza at Hermione. "Any particular reason why, or are we just visiting the books?" Ron asked.

Hermione glared at him. "Of course there's a reason! Think about it, Ron! Jeremy's lost his memory completely, we've lost bits and peices of ours, and I think it's pretty obvious that we were all friends before!"

Ron stared at her. "So? What does that have to do with the library?"

"Honestly, Ron, you're completely hopeless. This is all far too coincidental to be natural. There was obviously some magical intervention in this case, and I think we should find out what it is so that we can reverse it!"

Ron rolled his eyes. "That proves nothing! All of those coincidental things you're talking about? They could be, oh, I dunno, a _coincidence_!"

Hermione stood up and shouted, "You just don't want to study!"

Ron stood up as well. "Well, duh I don't want to study, I'm not some know-it-all who's looking at a coincidence and saying it has to be magical!"

Jeremy sighed. It didn't look like they were planing on stopping any time soon, and he personally didn't want to be caught in the cross-fire, so he quickly excused himself and went off to bed before they could ask him his oppinion.

**Tada! Chapter 4 is up! Sorry if it wasn't great, I'm currently sick. I couldn't go hang out with Little Lily Granger today, which was sad, but then she threatened me with not posting the next chapter of One Last Hope (WHICH YOU SHOULD ALL READ!) until I got my lazy butt in gear and posted this chappie. Which is also why it's kinda short, but that's mainly because I finished all I had set out to do in this chappie early, and I really didn't want to start anything new.**

**Please review! Good, bad, ugly, painful, I don't care, I want to know what you think! And also, if you have ANY advice at all, let me know! (Especially with my summary, I know it's bad but I can't think of what else to write for it.)**

**And again, REVIEW PLEASE!**

**Lady Jarine**


End file.
